No Ordinary Family Episode 1-2: No Ordinary Marriage

We are back for a second week of No Ordinary Family. And if the ratings continue like they did last week, I think we’ll be in for a nice, long ride. Let’s see what is happening with the Powell Family, shall we? (And there will be some spoilers ahead for tonight’s episode. Only read on if you’ve seen the episode or don’t care about being spoiled.)

Let’s do the run down by characters.

The show opens with Jim trying to stop some bank robbers. But when they come charging at him in their van, instead of stopping them, they just run him over. He does get a good look at one of the suspects, and draws a picture of him at work. Detective Cho seems to be suspicious about how he got to another crime scene, but she drops it for now. However, wife Stephanie finds out about his crime fighting and makes him promise to stop. He does until his friend George gets himself taking hostage by the bank robbers. Jim shows up as the robbers are once again taking off in their get away van, this time with George as hostage. While they still run over Jim, he manages to grab the underside of the van and then turn it on its side. While he tries to take off before the police show up, Cho still spots him leaving the crime scene. She shows up at his house and confronts him. Jim shows her what he can do, but she only threatens him to stop fighting crime before driving off. Stephanie is much more willing to let him keep going, but promises to find out what gave them the powers and to reverse whatever it is.

Stephanie, meanwhile, is doing it all. She’s still working as hard as ever, but she’s also doing a lot more at home, including organizing the school carnival. At work, she is waiting for a sample of the water from the river they crashed into, so she can analyze it and figure out what is causing the powers. When she needs to get to work for a last minute meeting, she takes off running, only to trip and fall when a text distracts her. That is what convinces Jim to stop using his powers. Stephanie is the first one to crack when the river samples she’s expecting arrive in Arizona instead of LA. So it’s a quick trip over to pick them up. When she and her assistant start to analyze the samples, they realize that, even with the glowing stuff in the water, it’s still just water. Something else is giving the family their powers.

Daphne, the daughter, is struggling with her new powers. She hates hearing all the insecure teenage thoughts going on around her at school. She’s taken to wearing an iPod at all times and hiding in the school library. Finally, at the school carnival, her mom helps her learn how to focus her thoughts so that she only hears what she wants to hear.

JJ is having some problems of his own. His sudden rise from F’s to A’s hasn’t gone unnoticed by his math teacher. JJ doesn’t want to tell any one the truth because he wants his family to be proud of him. But that means letting people think he’s cheating. While his dad quickly comes around, his teacher is still suspicious.

But the final moments of the episode belong to Detective Cho. After her confrontation with Jim about using his powers, she arrives home to find a man in her apartment. This man had shown up earlier asking about the villain with teleporting powers from last week. Now, this man is using telekinesis to hold her in the air, demanding to know if she knew about the teleporting and if anyone else does. When she finally admits that she knew about the powers but she was the only one, the man lets Cho back to the ground. He then takes her gun and kills her with it as he is walking out of the door. And he places a phone call to let his boss know that the situation has been handled. The phone call goes to? Dr. Drayton King, one of Stephanie’s bosses back at the lab.

This episode definitely had a slower pace than last week’s. While there were a few storylines, there weren’t nearly as many developments. The focus is still on exploring our main characters. We’re seeing how they are dealing with the new powers and the extra complications it brings to their lives. We’ve got a little bit of superhero stuff, but not too much yet. And I still want to know how they plan to use JJ’s powers. Frankly, it doesn’t seem like much to me right now.

But underneath all that, they are starting to lay the framework for something bigger. This guy who killed Cho and Dr. King are obviously up to something. Are they the ones that gave the Powell’s their powers? My best guess is that as season one builds, we’ll learn more about them and what they are ultimately planning. Then the Powells will have to take them down somehow. But for now, it’s just a plot thread in the background.

They certainly wanted us to think she was dead, but we didn’t see her body. I’m wrote this assuming she was, but I’m very willing to conceed that I might be very wrong on that. In fact, I hope she is. I was sorry to see them kill her because I like her.